Emma Louise Sweney Cox, ca. 1843-?

With her parents and sister, Emma Louise Sweney traveled from New Jersey to California in 1853. First taking trains and boats to Peoria, Illinois, the family traveled overland through Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada before reaching their new California home near Sacramento. Emma Sweney married Joseph Cox in 1860. The Cox family, which eventually included seven children, returned to Joseph's home in Pennsylvania in 1876. Joseph died there in 1894.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of a typescript of Emma Sweney's memoir detailing her family's overland trail crossing in 1853 and her subsequent life in California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania after her 1860 marriage to Joseph Cox. Her Nebraska memories include crossing the Platte River, Chimney Rock as "a freak of nature," and gathering up buffalo chips for fuel as they crossed the plains.